On May 16th, Ambassador Fu Ying visited the headquarter of the Guardian, talmet with Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief, Ian Katz, executive editor and Julian Borger, diplomatic editor, and was interviewed by Julian Borger.

Fu Ying said that the western media reported the Wenchuan earthquake of China's Sichuan Province, informed the pubic of the disaster and the relief efforts of China's troops and civilians and conveyed the sympathy and support of the western public,. All this helped improve the image of western media in China.

Madam Fu said, some western media had poor knowledge of China and carried negative and distorted reports on the violence in Lhasa and the torch relay of Beijing Olympic Games. This triggered an angry response from the Chinese at home and abroad and a great debate among the Chinese youth on western's motives. The western media justified their wrong reports by their difficulty in conducting on-site interviews. But this cannot be used as a pretext of distortions and wrong accusations. Although some western reporters sent back objective reports from the scenes of violence, this failed to change the prevailing negative tune.

Fu Ying emphasized that in the 30 years of China's reform and opening-up, China and western countries have increased their mutual understanding and are increasingly interdependent. China will continue to pursue the policy of opening-up and will not change its course. The Beijing Olympic Games will serve as a catalyst of China's continued reform and opening-up. The Lhasa incident, torch relay and earthquake will give China and western countries new understandings about each other. It is our hope that the Games will mark a new start in the course of China-West relations.

The two sides exchanged views on China's human rights, press freedom and Sino-British relations.

Alan Rusbridger extended his condolences to the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake and emphasized that he was quite impressed with the ambassador's frankness and sincerity. In spite of the differences between the two sides, the exchange of views furthered their understanding of China and reduced misunderstandings, The Guardian was eager to participate in discussions about Sino-western relations, promote exchanges with China and report China in an objective and factual manner.

The Guardian was founded as the Manchester Guardian in May 1821 and 'Manchester' was dropped from the Guardian's title in 1959. As a traditional liberalist newspaper, the Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust. Its website is rated as the most popular newspaper website for 6 consecutive years. The Guardian has no journalist office in Beijing or Shanghai.